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Burningman is an experiment in radical free
expression. 30,000 people camp for a week in a desert
- a place called Black Rock desert, an ancient lake-bottom in Nevada - where
the
daytime temperatures are above 100 degrees, where wind blows alkali dust,
and where almost
anything can happen. There is nothing for sale during the event,
and everyone must bring all of
their own food and water. No crowds, no lines (with the exception of the
the lines for the
ice -- there is ice at Burningman). Burningman is loneliness, friendship,
sights, sounds, and moods.
It is also a wild party which can be viewed from the fringe or from the
center. Mad art-cars
zooming about, lasers in the dust at night, music everywhere, wind, strangers,
friends
and art. People spend tremendous amounts of time building 'stuff' to display:
costumes and
camps, oasis with water falls, giant rocks that spin, hearts that are filled
at night with wood
and glow red with the wood-burning-heat, fire dancers, subtle and perverted
or sublime and
gentle. I rode around on a bicycle a lot. Taking pictures with my two old
Nikon's, not
worrying about what the blowing alkali dust was doing to them. All my pictures
of people were
taken after I asked if I could take their picture....
steve saroff |
